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Tailoring - RMF Global
The Baringo Community has identified tailors from their community to be part of our micro-enterprise options and opportunities. Items that are consistently needed include school uniforms for children and youth. School uniforms are mandatory in Kenya and in many other countries around the world. For parents from underprivileged backgrounds, purchasing school uniforms is often unaffordable and thus many students are not able to attend school.
Baringo County in Rift Valley is one of Kenya’s 47 counties and has a total population of over 800,000 people, with 320,000 between the ages of 3–17; the population is expected to grow by more than 120,000 people by 2030. Baringo County is among the marginalized counties in Kenya with a poverty incidence of 52.2% against 45.2% nationally, and a dependency ratio of 107.2. More than 21,500 children of primary school age, and 55% of secondary school age youth in the county are out of school. 16% of the population has a secondary level of education or above, 48% have primary education, 36% of the population has no formal education.
Our tailoring micro-enterprise envisions to include a Sanitary Pads Program for school girls, providing reusable sanitary pads to reduce absenteeism and dropout rates among girls by providing them with sustainable and reliable solutions for managing menstruation.
A study in Kenya found that 95 percent of menstruating girls missed one to three school days per month, 70 percent reported a negative impact on their grades, and more than 50 percent stated falling behind in school because of menstruation. Lack of sanitary pads leads to an estimated one million girls missing school every month.
Period poverty – being unable to work or attend school because of lack of funds for sanitary products – makes life even harder for girls. In an area where a packet of sanitary pads costs $1, and the average family has to manage on less than that per day, poverty means access to sanitary products is near-impossible for the majority of girls, particularly if they have to travel from remote rural areas to buy them in towns. Studies show that 65 percent of women and girls in Kenya are unable to afford sanitary pads. Millions of girls drop out of school at puberty due to period poverty and lack of cleanliness and separate toilet facilities for female students at schools. Children out of school are at greater risk of being abused and expoited or recruited into child labor, many girls face being forced into early marriage.